The long-term objectives of the MBRS Program, housed in the Graduate School, will continue to focus on: 1) enhancing the participating faculty's competitive ability to obtain mainstream research support; and 2) to increase the number of minority investigators entering biomedical science fields. Other objectives are to provide a multi-discipline institutional support-base for biomedical studies which will enhance a large segment of departments. In this competing renewal application, 22 subprojects are included from 32 faculty investigators in the departments of Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Communication Sciences, Genetics, Physical Education, Physiology, Psychology, and Zoology. The program includes six (6) Associate Investigators indicating competitive research programs as well as enhanced training capability. Nine (9) new subprojects are included in this application of which three (3) are from junior faculty. The research areas include at least three (3) molecular biology projects as well as three (3) projects in the behavioral effects of health related abnormalities. Twenty-nine graduate and eight (8) undergraduate students are required as co-participants on the various subprojects.